Herkules Atlas
The '''Herkules Atlas '''is a pushboat identical to those used in European ports and harbours. She is featured in Ship Simulator Extremes and Ship Simulator 2008. She is one of the two new vessels featured in Ship Simulator 2008 New Horizons, along with the Bugsier 2. Analysis Herkules Atlas is used in rivers and ports, to carry cargo from one terminal to another. Some pushboats are also used in open-sea areas. The Herkules Atlas is the first and only ship to be able to use the barge connecting functions on Ship Simulator 2008 and Ship Simulator Extremes, making her a fairly popular ship in multiplayer and missions. History The Herkules Atlas's keel was laid on May 23 1969 at The Kiel Canal Vessel Company (now Kiel Smallboats) in Wittensee Lake in Schleswig-Holstein Germany, it was trucked to nearby Radel Insel where it was launched into Kiel Canal on March 12 1970. It was christened as the Shannon Spears and was owned by Spears And Sons Towing in Dover Kent England. It left for its 437-mile journey to Dover March 21 1970 and for 12 years, the Shannon Spears was viable member of the Spears and Sons fleet. In July 1982, Spears and Sons was purchased by Townsend Thoresen, a Dover-based ferry line, and was renamed "Townsend Le Harve". The vessel typically served a rescue tug for stranded ferries, but was also used to preform harbor duties around Dover. In 1987, the Towsend Le Harve was renamed "P&O Le Harve" after Townsend Thoresen was renamed "P&O European Ferries, but it's time with the company was short. The P&O Le Harve, now named "Le Harve", laid up in London at what is now the Wood Wharf Business Park on June 1 1989 and was listed for sale. The company who owned the tug, Barclays Marine Asset Management, faced heavy scrutiny for docking a dormant vessel to be with little to no security in a public area. The tug was inactive from 1989 to 1993. On January 1st 1992, just after 12:00AM, a fire was reported onboard the tug. When first responders arrived, they observed a fire consuming the main accommodations block. It took three hours for the fire to be put out, it was completely gutted and the floor caved into the small engine room below. There were no deaths or injuries reported. The burned out tug remained in London until April 8 1993 when it was towed into port to be shipped off to Harland and Wolff Industries' shipyard in Belfast. Over the next two months in Belfast, the Le Harve was completely rebuilt. It received new accommodation block (complete with a crew rest area and bunks), new engine room, and an upgraded movable pilot house. It was completed in October 1993 and relaunched on November 3rd 1993. Harlan and Wolff used the tug around their yard from November 1993 to March 1994, when it laid up there and was put up for sale. In May 1994, the Le Harve was purchased by the American towing firm, Atlas Towboats, of Richmond Heights, Missouri. It loaded onto a ship and delivered to New Orleans, one of Atlas' main yards. It was renamed " Atlas Crown" during a three week fit out in Gretna, Louisiana and began sailing on July 11 1994. The Atlas Crown primarily engaged in a coal, grain, and aggregate trades out of New Orleans, the tug's fast speed was huge advantage. During it's first year of service with Atlas, it would haul grain from New Orleans to Red Wing, Minnesota, a trip that typically took five days to complete, but only took one and a half days to complete with the Atlas Crown. In 1996, the Crown was mated with newer barges that made the combo sail a combined speed of 60 knots. Because of this, the Atlas Crown was put on prime trade routes within the inland United States. It began serving the Illinois River region and Chicago. On September 11 1998, the Atlas Crown and it's five barges operated the inaugural Chicago-New Orleans route run. Atlas Towboats operated the route from 1954 to 1989, they cut it due to slow transit times and lack of profit, a trip that typically took 13 days. The Crown cut the trip down to a two day trip. The Atlas Crown enjoyed success with Atlas Towboats fleet during the late 90's and early 2000's, it was the flagship of the "AtlasExpress" service, a dedicated express freight service, and constantly made trips up and down the Mississippi River. On November 31 2002, the Crown was performing trip from New Orleans to Corpus Christi, Texas. It ran aground Corpus Christi Bay and broke free from its barges. The current of the bay temporarily freed the tug, but then forced it into another sandbar, heavily damaging it. Out of three barges it was carrying, one sank, one snapped its keel, and another one went missing. It was later found aground near Sunset Lake Park. The tug's crew were all accounted for with no injuries. The Atlas Crown was rebuild that winter and returned to it's normal trade routes in the spring. During 2003 and 2004, Atlas Towboat began introducing a new class of tugboats known as the "Crown Class" boats. Drawing influence from the Atlas Crown and being built at one of Atlas's tug yards in Beaumont, Texas, 87 of the new tugs were expected to be put into service between 2003 and 2005. The Atlas Crown, however, was reportedly doing to phased out once all the Crown Class tugs were in service. By this time, the Crown was in service between Florida and Texas, making almost daily runs from Tampa to Houston with the fuel carrying barge, "Atlas Enterprise". Most of the newer tugs were making runs that the Crown formerly did. On March 11th 2005, the final Crown class tug, the Atlas North America, was delivered to Atlas's main hub yard in Saint Louis. With the delivery came the final trip of the Atlas Crown, but it didn't go noticed. CEO of Atlas, Mark Amberson, brought the Crown up to Saint Louis for the Atlas North America christening ceremony. Amberson formally retired the Crown and introduced the North America at the event, saying "We're are looking to the future. Although we hate to say goodbye to one of best performers in our fleet for the past eleven years, it's influence, work ethic, power, and dutifulness will be shown in our new Crown Class tugs, I hereby retire the venerable, Atlas Crown, and introduce to you, the Atlas North America". The speech was followed by a horn salute, fireworks, and music. The Crown's longtime captain, Captain Jacob Paul Guinness, was also thanked by Amberson. Guinness became the captain of the Atlas North America in May of 2005, but his stint only lasted a short time. Ten months after, Guinness passed away on December 15th 2005 while sailing up-bound the Mississippi River, he was 57. The North America was renamed in his honor the next month. The Crown performed it's last trip on March 15 2005 from Houston to Red Wing. After unloading it's cargo at Red Wing, it laid up there and put up for sale. On April 11 2006, The Atlas Crown was sold to the New York City based company, Herkules Lines. The company had just started a towing and "tug transportation " division and were looking for tugs to buy secondhand. The Atlas Crown was renamed "Herkules Atlas" and departed for New York City on on April 20th. The tug often performed various jobs around New York. In October 2018, the Herkules Atlas, reaching nearly fifty years of sailing, was laid up in Bayonne, New Jersey but was quickly picked up by Cape Liberty Cruise Port to assist inbound cruise ships, it was renamed again to "Cape Atlas". On August 8th 2019, the Cape Atlas caught fire and lost power while assisting the cruise ship, Marella Discovery. The fire started in it's engine and spread up the right smoke stack and destroyed the engine room, smoke stack and damaged the pilothouse and part of the aft deck, luckily out of the five crew onboard, none were killed. The Cape Atlas foundered, as it was still tied to the Discovery, soon after. The tug was refloated a day later and sent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard where it was repaired. During the repair process, Cape Liberty Cruise Port resold the tug to Degree Marine Corporation of Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York. Repairs were finished in mid-December 2019, the tug was again renamed to simply "Atlas". According to Degree Marine, they plan to use the Atlas within the Red Hook harbor area but as of January 7th 2020, the Atlas remained laid up in Gowanus Bay in Brooklyn. Gallery HKA1.PNG|The barge controls. HKA2.PNG|The stern. HKA3.PNG|The aft deck. HKA4.PNG|The helm, overlooking the barge. Category:Ships Category:Ship Simulator Extremes